


Wingspan

by mariamuses



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Illyrian, Inner Circle - Freeform, wingspan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-24 21:25:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13819749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariamuses/pseuds/mariamuses
Summary: It all comes down to the same thing every time the three Illyrians get together: wingspans





	Wingspan

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments!! I love hearing what you think about my fics!!

Azriel had somehow ended up stuck in the same discussion that always came up when the Illyrians were together. He really shouldn’t have been that surprised.

“Mine is bigger”, said Rhys, spreading out his wings to see the full extent of them.

“In your dreams, little prince. We all know mine is  
the biggest wingspan of them all”, shot back Cassian, mirroring Rhys’  
previous action to compare between both, pressing his back and wings to Rhys’  
ones. “Azriel, you can see them together. Whose is bigger? Mine right? That little bastard doesn’t even come up to my talons, ha!”

Azriel didn’t even bother to go near them. Instead, he gave in to his pride, something he almost never did, and crossed his arms, making himself frown to show the smallest glimpse of anger to his brothers.

“And why can’t it be mine? How come I always get overlooked?” he questioned, making his brothers feel a little guilty for not even considering in all the times they had done this that his wingspan might be bigger.

Realization dawned on them and they immediately started apologizing.

“No! Az is not that –“

“Yeah we didn’t… You’ve never –“

He raised a hand and shut them up, spreading his wings out, grabbing Cassian by his forearms and turning him around, ordering him to do the same. Then he turned around, both of them being back to back, and slowly walking backwards until both their wings were touching the other’s.

Rhys walked forwards, grabbing the edges of both wingspans carefully and accurately pinning them together with his magic. Then he went and did the same on the other side, and when he was finished, he stared at the results.

“So? Whose is bigger?” impatiently asked Cassian, barely containing his excitement.

Rhysand shook his head, even if they couldn’t see it, and said, “Actually… You have the exact same wingspan. Down to the millimeter.”

“Not possible. It can’t be”, refused Cassian again, breaking the magic strings tying his wings to Azriel’s. “You don’t know how to do this, you ass. Here –“ he said motioning for Rhys to do the same he had just done, but with Azriel. “This is how you do it”, he explained, following the same steps Rhys had just done moments ago. When he finished, a frown drew on his brow.

“It can’t be. Not the three of us”, he muttered under his breath,, cursing the Cauldron.

“Wait”, asked Az, “ours is the same too?”

Cassian nodded, stupor clearly etched on his face.

Silence followed for a few seconds, only for hell to break loose again, the same dilemma rising all over again, like a phoenix from the ashes.

* * *

**_A HUNDRED YEARS LATER_ **

“Okay, okay, kids. Gather up!” called Cassian.

A collective groan escaped from the all the kids’ mouths. They weren’t kids anymore, all of them past 18.

“Daaad… For the thousandth time: WE DON’T WANT TO DO THIS”, said Blake, Cassian’s son.

“Yeah, uncle Cass. We don’t believe that rumour”, declared Azriel’s son, Kunal, rolling his eyes while he kept his face on the book he was reading.

“Besides, if we did, what would it mean about me?” inquired Rhys’ dauther Nysa. “Or would you have me not do it because I’m a girl?”

The three illyrians rubbed confusedly the back of their necks, an looking at each other for an answer.

“Of course not, Nyssie. You do it with them. It’s just a stupid game”, assured her Rhys.

“Then why do we have to do it?” countered Kunal, eyes still fixed on his book.

Azriel kneeled by the chair his son sat in and gently pried the book from his hands.

“Please Kuni? We made a bet when all of you were babies and if you do this, we won’t bother you anymore.”

“So we’re just toys for you to play with?” shot back again Kunal, a smug look on his face, eyes now locked to his fathers’.

“Never. We just think that now that you’re all old enough for your growth to have stop, it would be cool to know. But, if you feel like we’re using you, you don’t have to do it”, he stopped and look at the other two, “Any of you.”

The three kids sighed and said in unison, “Fine. But if we win we give you a punishment.”

The ‘adults’ started cheering and whistling, promptly grabbing their offspring’s arms and encouraging them to spread their wingspans.

One by one, they measured the children against each other, and dread crept into their faces.

Smirking, Blake asked, feigning ignorance, “What’s wrong?”

Kunal and Nysa joined him and questioned if anything was off.

The three baffled brothers looked at their kids and finally Cassian answered, “All your wingspans are the same. Just like ours are.”

“Oh! Are they?” slyly asked Nysa. “And can we compare yours with ours? It only has to be one of you, since they’re all the same. Same for ours.”

The man shot each other worried glances, but their pride got the best of them and they caved in.

“Yes, yes. At least we can have a bigger wingspan than our kids…” muttered Rhys, summoning his wife to measure fairly the wings.

What they were not expecting was the three mothers showing up, interested in what was going on.

“Okay, who’s going?”

Nysa’s hand shot up at the same time Azriel’s did, so both got in the middle of the circle the others had formed around them.

“Wings out, contestants” ordered Nesta in her best performance voice.

They did and Nesta compared the both of them like the other millions of times his husband had made her do.

After following the steps, cheers and groans could be heard, but the pair in the center weren’t able to distinguish where they were coming from, if they lost or won, so they started running around like chickens without a head.

“WHAT?! WHAT?!”, screamed Azriel and Nysa, desperately looking for their teammates faces, hoping to find a smile on them.

Simultaneously, Nysa started laughing and Azriel buried his head on his hands.

After a few more minutes of really loud noise, Kunal cleared his voice and cupping his hand around his mouth, declared:

“At long last, these proud illyrian have found their match: their own sons and daughters. From now on, this eternal dispute shall be finished – no more comparisons between you – and should you ever do it, a tattoo will appear on your ‘lower wingspan’ saying ‘smaller than my son/daughter’ until you confess what you’ve done to us, and then the bargain will begin all over again.”

Cries of indignation rose from the fathers, but the mothers and offspring burst in laugh at the great idea.

* * *

Let’s just say, there were a few times the Illyrians didn’t get laid at night because their mates refused to let that reminder of their children’s wingspan near their most precious parts, scarring their minds forever. This stopped when their wives stopped altogether having any kind of interaction until they swore to stop it.

Begrudgingly, they eventually stopped measuring themselves.

After all, it was only a legend.


End file.
